Memeorandum

July 16, 2004

John Edwards / Imus Excerpt

IMUS: Senator Edwards, either you or Senator Kerry can answer this. The president is saying—claiming, rather, that the Iraq war has made us safer, and some people think that that may be the pivotal election question, and it would be fair that it’s been coming up on three years, and thank God we haven’t been attacked again in this country. Is the president right, or have we just been lucky, or what?

EDWARDS: Well, first of all, Saddam being gone is good, and John and I both believe that. But it’s the problem is what’s happened to our relationships around the world has made it incredibly difficult for us to get to a lot of these terrorist cells, where they’re operating. And one of the things that both of us have talked about way back then, when the resolution was voted on, is how important it was for us to have strong coalitions, to have strong relationships with our friends and allies.

And just as a practical matter, if we’re going to get—the president talks about the war on terrorism, but if we’re going to get at these terrorists outside our borders in order to be effective at doing that, we’re going to have to go where they are. And to go where they are, we’re going to have to have relationships with the countries that work with us cooperatively.